Part of the Deseret News' weapons-testing reporting included building a computer database to analyze documented tests and accidents, which were broken down into nearly 800 chronological listings over a five-decade period.
The computer analysis, conducted by editor Scott Taylor, revealed test trends, many of which are detailed in the accompanying text and graphics.For example, the computer analysis showed that:
- Nearly 15,000 pounds of nerve gas - one drop which can kill - was sprayed by aircraft in 13 tests in 1962 and 1968.
- Eight accidents at a pilot plant at Tooele Army Depot - working on methods to destroy nerve agent - released unburned agent beyond legal limits. In one accident, 73.3 times the legal hourly limit was released into the atmosphere.
- From January 1951 through February 1956, Dugway Proving Ground conducted 36 test operations in which officials were unsure if tests were confined to Army lands.
- On May 23, 1953, two large tests were planned at Dugway Proving Ground, including one to drop 100,000 curies of radioactive tantalum (6,667 times as much as Three Mile Island) over four square miles. Documents do not show whether the tests occurred, but the Army assumed they had when it conducted a 1989 study on what radiation threat might still be present then.